Senate Bill S515

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S515

SPONSOR: THOMAS
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the education law, in relation to requiring additional
licensed pharmacists to be on staff during any period in which more than
two hundred prescriptions are dispensed

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To protect the well-being of pharmacists and pharmacy patients from
corporate performance metrics that are attributable to medication
errors.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one amends the education law to require pharmacies filling more
than two hundred prescriptions in a fourteen hour period to have at
least two licensed pharmacists on duty for the entire fourteen hour
period. Daily logs maintained by the pharmacy listing the on-duty phar-
macists hourly fills must be shown to compliance auditors during an
              

audit. This log may be used as evidence that the pharmacy had the
required number of pharmacists on duty.

Section two amends the education law to prohibit pharmacies from enforc-
ing policies that interfere with a pharmacists professional duties or
judgement in matters of pharmacy ethics or laws.

Section three amends the education law to prohibit pharmacies from
terminating pharmacists for refusal or failure to meet performance
metrics or quotas relating to the number of prescriptions dispensed when
the pharmacist determines that meeting the quota would endanger patient
safety or care.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

In January 2020, the New York Times published an article titled "How
Chaos at Chain Pharmacies Is Putting Patients at Risk." This article
highlighted pharmacist reactions to the increasing number of medication
errors reported at chain pharmacies. In particular, pharmacists from the
large chains reported being understaffed and forced to meet corporate
performance metrics that they believed were unreasonable and unsafe.

These performance metrics affect a substantial number of pharmacists.The
Institute for Safe Medication Practices surveyed 673 pharmacists in
chain pharmacies, independent pharmacies, and mass merchant pharmacies
and found that 62% of the pharmacists surveyed reported that the pharma-
cy they work for had a policy or procedure related to the time it takes
to full prescriptions. Another 49% reported that there were no
provisions allowing a pharmacist to exceed the time guarantee expecta-
tion and that they are penalized if they do not meet the advertised time
guarantee expectations. This pressure has led many pharmacists to make
mistakes when determining prescription dosage and determining which
medications to prescribe to patients. 83% of pharmacists working for
pharmacies with time guarantees reported that the time guarantee was a
contributing factor to dispensing errors and almost half of pharmacists
(44%) reported a dispensing error they were personally involved with
that was directly attributed to rushing to fulfill the time guarantee.
The effects of these mistakes are highly consequential. For example, an
Illinois resident was sent to the hospital because his local pharmacy
provided him ear drops rather than eye drops, the former of which caused
severe irritation. Worse cases do exist, such as a Florida woman who was
mis-prescribed chemotherapy pills instead of antidepressants, a mistake
which cost her life.

Despite these extreme, but increasingly common outcomes, the largest
pharmaceutical companies in the nation have failed to take action and
adequately protect their patients. Given the irreplaceable cost of
inaction, New York State must act to protect its residents. The Insti-
tute for Safe Medication practices survey also asked all respondents
whether they would favor or oppose regulation from state boards of phar-
macies that would prohibit the use of time guarantees or promises. A
majority of respondents strongly favored (71%) or somewhat favored regu-
lation (16%).

This bill would fix pharmacists' concerns about under staffing by
requiring that pharmacies filling over 200 prescriptions in a 14 hour
period have two pharmacists on staff for the period. Pharmacists
concerns about unsafe conditions are also addressed in this bill by
prohibiting pharmacies from enforcing policies like time guarantees or
quotas that interfere with a pharmacists professional judgement.  The
bill also protects pharmacists from retaliation for failing to meet
performance metrics that the pharmacist believes unsafe.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2021-22: S.162 (Thomas) - Referred to Higher Education.

2019-20: S.7748 (Thomas)- Referred to Higher Education.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the State.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have
become law.